Internet speed: country ranks 17th out of 20

Internet speeds at peak times for streaming online videos are improving across Latin America, but despite overall improvements, Argentina’s remained almost at the bottom on the US-based online broadcaster Netflix’s monthly report for May.

Netflix’s ISP Speed Index was expanded in March to include five new countries, including Peru, Mexico and Jamaica, and as of last month, the country was 17th out of the 20 that are measued by the online video streaming service.

At the top of the list were countries of relatively small size and populations, implying a lower saturation of broadband infrastructure. The Netherlands boasted the highest download rate of 3.51 megabytes per second (Mbps), followed by Sweden at 3.31 Mbps, Denmark at 3.23 Mbps and Norway at 3.09 Mbps.

The first country with a large population, but still small in size, was the fifth-place United Kingdom, at 2.89 Mbps, while the first large nation was Canada, with 2.66 Mbps.

Large in both size and population, the United States clocked in at an average rate of 2.31 Mbps, below the region-leading Uruguay, which came out on top with 2.46 Mbps.

When looking at the overall graph for all countries, only a few outliers registered deceleration in Internet speeds, and despite its low rank, Argentina has improved from its first outing on the ISP Speed Index in January, rising from 1.6 Mbps to 1.71.

Telecentro on top

Out of the six Internet service providers measured in the country, Telecentro reaffirmed its position in first place ahead of the Clarín Group’s Fibertel with an average speed of 2.33 Mbps against the latter’s 1.99Mbps.

Fibertel has nonetheless improved its speeds since Netflix included Argentina into its index in January, when the company posted an average 1.88 Mbps.

Telecentro, which has a significantly lower market share than the big cable and DSL players, saw a whopping boost from 1.76 Mbps in January to 2.35 Mbps in May.

Claro also saw a better monthly performance, rising from 1.78 Mbps to 1.91 Mpbs last month, having been incorporated by Netflix in the index in March.

The speeds reported for the other three, Telered, Telefónica and Telecom stagnated or decreased, with the latter posting the highest browsing speed of 1.28 Mbps for last month.

Despite the incorporation of two new players to the index in March — Claro and Telered — the overall rise in Argentine Internet speeds is constant, as Claro contributed to the high-end of the speed spectrum and Telered to the low-end.

The Netflix ISP Speed Index is based on data from the more than 48 million Netflix members worldwide who view more than one billion hours of TV shows and movies streaming from the Netflix service each month.